May 18, 2020

OSSArcFlow As-Is Workflows: All Workflows

The Educopia Institute, in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (UNC SILS), LYRASIS, and Artefactual, Inc., launched the Open Source Software Archival Workflow (OSSArcFlow) research project in July 2017. This two year project draws together 12 partner institutions from different cultural heritage sectors to investigate, synchronize, and model the use of OSS tools in born-digital workflows. The project is funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and aims to increase institutional capacity for curating born-digital content.

In the fall of 2017, the project team worked with partners at each institution to mockup a visual representation of their current workflow activities. Representing a “snapshot in time,” these documents show how a diverse group of institutions are using OSS tools in their workflows to curate born-digital content. They also provide an essential starting point for synthesizing and comparing both the gaps and overlaps that currently exist between common OSS tools and environments.